1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a footboard which is a tread for making it easy not only for general well-built adult men but also children, women, elderly people, people with leg or lumbar disabilities to get on and off when the person gets on and off a step portion of an automobile, a staircase of a house, a vestibule, or the like and the footboard can be used in case of necessity by drawing out a footboard main body as the tread from a lower portion or a vicinity of the lower portion of a portion for getting on and off and then by lowering the footboard main body to an intermediate position of a height from the drawn out position to the ground below the footboard.
2. Description of the Related Art
A step portion of an automobile, a staircase of a house, a vestibule, or the like and especially various automobiles and especially many automobiles such as vans and recreational vehicles generally have large vehicle heights. If the vehicle height is large, a floor face of a portion for getting on and off is naturally at a position which is high to some degree. There are models in which a floor face inside a portion for getting on and off of rear seats is formed as a lower step, but such a step formed by making the floor face lower is still high in many cases. There are models in which a floor height is at a midpoint position between a floor height of a general passenger car and a van among recent recreational vehicles and such models do not have the floor face inside the portion for getting on and off formed as the above-described lower step. Therefore, conventionally, it takes much time and it is dangerous to get on and off because it is difficult for children, women, elderly people, and people with leg or lumbar disabilities to get on and off without assistance of those around them.
Conventionally, in such a case at the step portion of the automobile, the staircase of the house, the vestibule, or the like, assistance from those around the person getting on and off is obtained as described above or a box for getting on and off is placed on the ground in front of the step portion and the person gets on and off by placing his/her feet on this box. There are models having side steps on the left and right of a vehicle body among jeep-type models among the automobiles.
However, even if assistance is obtained from those around the person in getting on and off the step portion of the automobile, the staircase of the house, the vestibule, or the like and especially the automobile, a great burden is imposed on the person who provides assistance if the person getting on and off is an adult. Especially when there is only a woman who can provide assistance, a burden on her is greater to aggravate danger in such a manner as to cause a backache, a hernia, a slipped disk, and the like.
The above-described method of placing the box in front of the step portion may be dangerous depending on a position of the box which the person steps on and how to step on the box, because the person may miss his/her footing on the box or the box may change orientation or may move to cause the person to fall down. Moreover, the box may become an obstacle when it is not used. Only a small percentage of the models of the automobiles have the above-described side steps. If such side steps are provided to many vans and recreational vehicles to project sideways, the side steps may injure people or scratch other cars in traveling.
Recently, there are automobiles having a step device which is actuated to advance and recede outward (frontward) from a floor face or below the floor face of a portion for getting on and off on a side of rear seats among the automobiles. However, this type of step device advances and recedes only outward (frontward) and a height of the device cannot be changed. Therefore, above-described difficulty in getting on and off cannot be solved.
The inventor of the present invention conventionally realized that it was difficult to get on and off the step portion of the automobile, the staircase of the house, the vestibule or the like and especially the automobile with the large vehicle height and began development of a novel footboard for the automobile which solves such a problem and which can be easily retrofitted to the automobile. As a result of subsequent earnest study, the inventor of the present invention finally invented the footboard for the step portion as the present invention and completed a prototype.
It is an object of the present invention completed after the above experiences to provide a footboard. In a case of a step portion of an automobile, a staircase of a house, a vestibule, or the like and especially when a floor face of a portion for getting on and off in a commercially available model having a large vehicle height and called a van or a recreational vehicle is higher than that of a normal passenger car, the footboard is easily mounted to the floor face or a vicinity of the floor face by using bolts and the like. In getting on and off, by only holding a footboard main body with a hand, drawing it out frontward, and pushing it down, it is possible to horizontally position the footboard main body at a height which is about a half of a height from a front portion of the portion for getting on and off to the ground to thereby make it easy for a person to get on the vehicle by placing his/her feet on the footboard main body. Especially, the footboard makes it easy for children, women, elderly people, and people with leg or lumbar disabilities to get on and off by themselves and makes it easy to assist them when there is a person who provides assistance. When the footboard is not used, it is possible to easily accommodate the footboard main body by folding the footboard main body with a hand such that the footboard main body is disposed along the floor face inside the portion for getting on and off or a bottom of a body so as not to become an obstacle. Because main portions of the footboard can be produced by using commercially available members and a structure is simple and excellent in a load-carrying property and durability, the footboard can be used for a long term without anxiety.
To achieve the above objects, there is proposed a footboard according to the invention for making it easy for a person to get on and off a step portion and including: an attachment member for attaching the footboard to a floor face or a vicinity of the floor face of a portion for getting on and off of the step portion; left and right advancing/receding members supported by the attachment member to advance and recede in a back-and-forth direction; left and right lifting/lowering stays respectively mounted to the left and right advancing/receding members; a footboard main body supported horizontally or substantially horizontally by the left and right lifting/lowering stays; and an operating member provided to the footboard main body and formed of a grip or a handle with which advancing/receding and lifting/lowering operations are carried out.
If the footboard of the invention having the above structure (hereafter abbreviated as the footboard of the invention) is mounted to the step portion of the automobile, the staircase of the house, the vestibule, or the like and especially to the floor face of the portion for getting on and off of a van with a large vehicle height or a recreational vehicle with a relatively large vehicle height, by only holding the footboard main body which is a tread of the footboard, drawing it out frontward, and then pushing it down in getting on and off, it is possible to form a step in a position at a height which is about a half of a floor height and which is such a height that a foot just in front of the portion for getting on and off can be easily placed on.
As a result, not only well-built adult men but also children, women, elderly people, and people with leg or lumbar disabilities can easily get and on off by using the footboard main body as the tread.
When the footboard of the invention is mounted to the floor face (floor plate) of the step portion of the automobile, the staircase of the house, the vestibule, or the like (hereafter merely referred to as the step portion), the floor face is sandwiched between the attachment member and a reinforcing plate (metal plate) and mounting the footboard by using mounting means such as bolts, nuts, and the like. This structure is preferable because the floor plate is not broken or deformed.
In other words, in the footboard of the invention, the footboard is placed on the floor plate inside the portion for getting on and off of the step portion, bolt holes are formed in the floor plate, the bolts are inserted through the attachment member and the floor plate, and the footboard is fasten with the nuts. Thus, the entire footboard is reliably fixed onto the floor plate. If the reinforcing plate (metal plate) is positioned on a back side of the floor plate to sandwich the floor plate in this mounting, the floor plate is not broken or deformed.
There is not a special limitation to a concrete structure used for each the advancing/receding member, but one formed of a slide rail, a cylindrical one such as a cylinder and a piston, or one formed of an outer tube portion having a polygonal or circular cross section and an advancing/receding portion for advancing and receding from and into the outer tube member may be employed, for example. In the third one, the advancing/receding portion may be in a shape of a tube or a rod. As far as the advancing/receding member is one which can be expanded and contracted in the back-and-forth direction to stably move the footboard main body forward and rearward including the above structures, there is not a special limitation to the member.
There is not a special limitation to a structure of each the lifting/lowering stay as far as lifting/lowering can be carried out easily with one hand and the footboard main body can be reliably maintained in the horizontal or substantially horizontal state in lowering.
Furthermore, there is not a special limitation to a structure of the operating member as far as the member does not become an obstacle to getting on and off. To put it concretely, the operating member may be a grip or a handle provided to a lateral central portion in a front face portion of the footboard, for example, or a mortise grip fixed into a hole formed in a substantially central face of the footboard is the most suitable because operation of moving forward and rearward and lifting and lowering can be carried out extremely easily.
In the footboard of the invention, it is preferable that the left and right advancing/receding members for advancing/receding in the back-and-forth direction are formed of left and right pairs of slide rails for the following reasons.
In other words, if the advancing/receding members are formed of the slide rails, because the commercially available slide rails can be used, it is possible to reduce a manufacturing cost. When the slide rails are drawn out frontward, the drawn out portions of the slide rails can bear considerable pressure from above. Therefore, the slide rail can be said to be safe, durable, and the most suitable material. Therefore, it is possible to employ a forming method in which the lifting/lowering stays are mounted for pivoting to the drawn out portions of the slide rails and the footboard main body is mounted for pivoting between the lifting/lowering stays.
When the commercially available slide rails are used as the advancing/receding members, if elongated holes are formed in inners of inner slide rails and end portions of the lifting/lowering stays are supported in the elongated holes through pins, effort and time are required for drilling and assembly and hindrance to forward and rearward movements of the inners and movements of the lifting and lowering stays is liable to be caused. Therefore, an intermediate member which is formed of a long plate made of metal, narrow, and extending to be long in a back-and-forth direction and which is formed with elongated holes extending from positions close to front and rear ends of the plate to approach each other is mounted to each the lifting/lowering stay and a corresponding end of the lifting/lowering stay is supported in each the elongated hole of the intermediate member through a pin.
In the footboard of the invention, it is preferable that each of the left two and right two lifting/lowering stays in the left and right lifting/lowering stays is formed of a slide rail.
Thus, if each the component member of the lifting/lowering member is formed of the slide rail, a distance by which the stay is vertically expanded and contracted can be increased by the component member itself. Therefore, it is possible to lower the footboard main body to a desired height. Because the respective stays are expanded and contracted in the lifting and lowering, it is possible to horizontally support the footboard main body in a stable attitude without moving a back-and-forth space between upper ends of the respective stays.
In the footboard of the invention, there is not a special limitation as far as the left and right lifting/lowering stays respectively mounted to the left and right advancing/receding members can be folded in the vertical direction and do not project upward by long distances when folded upward. However, each of the left and right lifting/lowering stays is preferably one formed of a link body formed by crossing two stays in an X shape in a side view and fixing a portion of intersection for pivoting by a pin.
If the left and right lifting/lowering stays are positioned between left and right side walls of the footboard main body and the both are connected as described above, left and right two ends of the left and right lifting/lowering stays supported on the footboard main body move upward or downward to lift or lower the footboard main body when an upward or downward force is applied to the footboard main body. At this time, upper and lower stop positions of lifting and lowering are set such that footboard main body is horizontal or substantially horizontal and that stability is not lost.
If the left and right lifting/lowering stays are fixed for pivoting through the pins in the X shape in the side view, upward and downward expansion and contraction of the footboard main body can be carried out in a stable attitude and a horizontal attitude and it is possible to easily fold the footboard main body in collapsing in an extremely compact state.
Moreover, in the footboard of the invention, it is preferable that the attachment member for attaching the footboard to the floor face or a vicinity of the floor face of the portion for getting on and off of the step portion also functions as a cover in which the left and right advancing/receding members and the left and right lifting/lowering stays are accommodated when the footboard main body is in an accommodated state.
With the above structure, if the footboard of the invention is not used, the advancing/receding members and the lifting/lowering stays positioned on the left and right are accommodated in the attachment member. In this accommodated state, a back-and-forth width of the footboard main body and a back-and-forth length of the attachment member are substantially the same and the main body and the member are substantially flush with each other. In other words, because the entire footboard is positioned in a flat state inside the portion for getting on and off of the step portion, it is possible to keep the footboard out of the way of the feet when the person gets on and off, to ensure safety of the person getting on and off, and to prevent defilement of the beauty of the step portion and a periphery of the step portion. A person who can get on and off without drawing out the footboard main body can get on and off by placing his/her feet on the footboard main body collapsed on a floor of the step portion.
As a result, in order to use the footboard of the invention, if a force for pulling the footboard main body at the step portion frontward is applied with a hand, the left and right inner advancing/receding members are drawn out frontward by a little over half in synchronization with the footboard main body. With this structure, it is possible to draw the entire footboard main body out of the vehicle while horizontally supporting the main body on the left two and right two slide rails, for example.
If a force for pushing the footboard main body downward is further applied from this state, the entire footboard main body moves down to the position at the height which is about a half of the height of the floor plate of the step portion and stops in that position in the horizontal and stable attitude. The person getting on and off the step portion can get on and off by placing his/her feet on the footboard main body.
If the footboard main body is supported on the slide rails as described above, because the drawn out portions of the slide rails are highly resistant to a load from above, the footboard is strong because of the slide rails even if a load of about a weight of a person is applied.
In the footboard of the invention, it is possible to vertically lift and lower the footboard main body while maintaining the horizontal attitude of the footboard main body. It is also possible to easily fold in collapsing and to fold the lifting/lowering stays substantially flat to prevent the stays from becoming obstacles to feet.
The footboard of the invention can be used while being mounted to any portion if the portion is the step portion which needs to be made easy for not only the well-built adult men but also children, women, elderly people, and people with leg or lumbar disabilities to get on and off. To put it concretely, it is the most desirable that the footboard is used while being mounted to the step portion of the automobile, the staircase of the house, the vestibule, or the like and especially the portion for getting on and off of the automobile in terms of a frequency of use, effectiveness, convenience, and the like.
There is not a special limitation to material of the footboard of the invention as far as the material can be used satisfactory as the footboard. To put it concretely, the material may be metal such as iron, aluminum, stainless steel, and the like, an alloy, synthetic resin, FRP, or a combination of them.